After a long wait:P we are finally mapped to the NGO which we will be visiting after our orientation in Bangalore. It is located in one of the most beautiful places in Andhra Pradesh, Araku. As Harshita says it almost looks like mini-Switzerland in pics. So some real good work with my camera after many days. Though the best thing definitely is the fact that we will stay in a forest(kind of) for almost 10 days with the local people (I am sure this will be a 180 degree turn in lifestyle for us Goans :P), trying to understand their problems, find solutions that work for them and try our level best to capture everything exquisite about the place and showcase it to the world ( krushi has more say on this one ). Lets see if we can come up with some ideas wherein the locals benefit from the tourism (may be something like what they do in Coorg can work here too…well I am sure there are more hippies out there like me).

I met Mr. Ravi Rebbapragada, the executive director of Samata along with Gum a couple of days back .  He was a truly energetic man, was happy with the area we chose to work in. Aaaah….you know what as Mr. Ravi enlightened me there are only two places where laws were passed in favor of the tribals till date, once in Australia and the second here in India popularly known as “the Samata Judgement”. WoW!!!. Now, that speaks for the credibility of the organization.

We are all excited, each one for his/her own reasons. But I am sure we as a team will do 100% justice to the “fun+learning+action” (the action part was added by me :P) tag of Grassroutes.

Cheers,

Varsha for Pro_Actives